can free domains rank

i'm talking about domains like co.cc, can this sort of domain names rank?

I don't know how important having a TLD is to the eyes of a search engine, but I can personally attest to never having seen a co.cc or anything similar for anything other than very long keywords.

Therefore, I would think it's a much wiser to spend a few bucks and get a .com domain unless you are absolutely unable to (i.e. not having any sort of online payment capability, but there are ways to get domains by trade rather than pay, so it's still feasible).

of course it can. if you're good with seo, you can rank any domain, even the crappiest domain. also, i've seen several free domain like co.cc rank in certain keywords

Yes it ranks, no personal experience. After reading here and there, I think its not as easy as we could have ranked a .com, .net or .org.

I have some .info's that rank but in my experience, like lonojoe said; .com, .net. and .org's seem to rank faster.

Ya they do still rank, but not very well